Language/Pijin/Culture/Solomon-Islands-Timeline

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Historical Timeline for Solomon Islands - A chronology of key events
Solomon-Islands-Timeline-PolyglotClub.png

Solomon-Islands-Timeline-PolyglotClub.jpg

Solomon Islands Timeline[edit | edit source]

Origins[edit | edit source]

  • The first humans settled in the northern and western part of the Solomons some 28,000 years ago. Coming from Southeast Asia, these first inhabitants of nearby Oceania are notably the ancestors of the Papuans and the Aborigines of Australia.
  • A second wave of settlement reached the Solomons about 3,200 years ago; it is the Austronesians, who unite with the existing population. The Solomon Islands today are mainly descendants of these Austronesian migrants.
  • There is no political unification. The inhabitants of these islands live in autonomous villages, and develop dozens of distinct languages, of which about 75 survived at the beginning of the 21st century. While Austronesians settled permanently in the Solomons, others continued their eastward migrations, eventually becoming the Polynesians.
  • Centuries later, Polynesian migrants made the return journey, and formed Polynesian enclaves in the Solomon Islands of Rennell, Bellona and Ontong Java from the thirteenth to the fifteenth century. From the 14th to the 18th century, these territories were integrated into the Tongan sphere of influence, under the Tuʻi Tonga dynasty.

Colonial era[edit | edit source]

  • On February 7, 1568, the Spaniard Álvaro de Mendaña was the first European to discover the Solomons. He resided there with his men until August, a period marked by “continual bloody encounters” with the locals, from whom the Spaniards forcibly demanded food5. When he returned to Spain and recounted his discovery, the Spaniards, convinced that he had discovered the legendary Ophir, the land of origin of the gold of the biblical king Solomon, indicated the name Islas Solomon on their maps.
  • These maps are approximate, and the exact location of the islands was forgotten for a long time, until the Briton Philip Carteret rediscovered them in 1767. European missionaries arrived in the middle of the nineteenth century, but struggled to convert them. inhabitants. At the same time, the islands are crisscrossed by blackbirders, Europeans who recruit by force or by deceiving the islanders of the Pacific, sending them in particular to the plantations of Queensland or Fiji. These kidnappings heighten tensions, and the Solomonese therefore often react with suspicion and violence to any visit by Europeans.
  • The Royal Navy finally succeeds in suppressing these kidnappings, and the United Kingdom declares a protectorate over the south of the Solomons in 1893. The north has been a protectorate of the German Empire since 1886. The Treaty of Samoa of December 1899, German agreement. British-American, by which the United Kingdom cedes to Germany and the United States its interests in Samoa, results in the integration of the North of the Solomons into the British protectorate. Only the islands of Bougainville and Buka, in the far north of the archipelago, remain part of German New Guinea. This attachment of Bougainville to New Guinea was to cause a conflict at the end of the twentieth century between the Revolutionary Army of Bougainville and the independent state of Papua New Guinea, a conflict in which the Solomons were careful not to get involved.
  • The British protectorate facilitates the activities of missionaries, and allows the arrival of British and Australian companies, mainly for coconut plantations. However, the territory experienced very little economic development, and the colonial administration was minimalist, being content in particular with the maintenance of peace and order.
  • During World War II, most of the very small population of white settlers left the country, which became the scene of major clashes. In January 1942, the Japanese invaded and occupied the colony. In May 1942, the Battle of the Coral Sea marked the start of more than a year and a half of continuous fighting between the Allies (led by the Americans) and the Japanese. The Battle of Guadalcanal, from August 1942 to February 1943, marked a milestone in the Pacific War. In December 1943, the Solomons were again under Allied control, and British authority was restored. The presence of American soldiers in large numbers, however, had an important influence on the Solomon Islands, provoking millennial movements known as "cargo cults", and inciting some to challenge colonial authority.
  • The Maasina Ruru movement ("fraternal unity" in the 'are'are language) advocates civil disobedience in the years following the war. In 1947, the British jailed supporters of the movement who refused to pay their taxes, and the momentum waned by the end of the decade.
  • In the 1950s, the British gradually integrated the Solomonese into government bodies, to prepare them for autonomy. In 1960, a legislative council was set up, allowing the natives to participate in the legislation of the colony. In 1974, a Constitution provided for the creation of democratic institutions based on the Westminster system.
  • On January 2, 1976, the Solomons became autonomous, with a democratically elected government; Peter Kenilorea becomes “chief minister”, and leads the country to independence on July 7, 1978. He then takes the title of prime minister6. The Solomons are a parliamentary monarchy, recognizing Queen Elizabeth II de jure as head of state, with actual authority vested in the Prime Minister and Parliament.

Independence[edit | edit source]

  • Since independence (1978), the country has been marked by a certain political instability, and in particular by inter-ethnic conflicts at the end of the twentieth century and the beginning of the twenty-first.
  • On March 14, 1988, the Solomons, under Prime Minister Ezekiel Alebua, were one of the founding states of the Melanesian Spearhead Group, an international association for Melanesian cooperation and solidarity.
  • In 1998, indigenous inhabitants of the island of Guadalcanal armed themselves and founded the Isatabu Freedom Movement (IFM), led in particular by Harold Keke. They prey on migrants and descendants of migrants who have come in large numbers to the island of Malaita in previous decades. The Malaitans are over-represented among business leaders, in the public service and especially in the police, and part of the indigenous population of the island is demanding that their own interests be better taken into account. Malaitans are driven from their homes, and sometimes killed. The Malaitans of Guadalcanal organize and arm themselves in return, forming the Malaita Eagle Force (MEF), with Andrew Nori as the main spokesperson. Those accused of sympathizing with the IFM are in turn driven from their homes, assaulted and even killed. Police forces are overwhelmed (and the country has no army).
  • On June 5, 2000, the MEF and Andrew Nori took Prime Minister Bartholomew Ulufa'alu hostage, accusing him of failing to prevent this spiral of violence. The Commonwealth of Nations dispatched a delegation to the country, and began negotiations, which culminated in the Townsville Peace Agreement on October 15, signed by the IFM and the MEF. The ethnic militias agree to disarm, with the exception of Harold Keke and a hundred of his supporters. Over the next three years, "some of the main MEF activists took almost complete control of the police and the new government" from Prime Minister Manasseh Sogavare, although the latter had the backing of the democratically elected parliament. Activists use state finances in the name of the right to compensation for the violence suffered by Malaitans. Public services are in decline. Foreign logging companies are allowed to operate as they please, paying part of their profits to the government in return. In 2002, the police armed groups of activists, entrusting them with the task of eradicating the last armed supporters of Harold Keke. Violence resumes; villages of supposed Keke supporters are burnt. Residents face intimidation, sometimes no longer have access to essential public services - including health care - and corruption has become endemic10.
  • In April 2003, Prime Minister Sir Allan Kemakeza turned to neighboring countries and asked for their help in restoring order. This request gives rise to RAMSI: the Regional Assistance Mission to the Solomons. “Led and funded by Australia and New Zealand”, this mission includes participants from all member countries of the Pacific Islands Forum10. The Solomon Islands Parliament authorizes the deployment of the mission on July 22. Two days later, soldiers, police and various civilian experts arrive from Australia, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, Fiji, Tonga, Vanuatu, Samoa, Kiribati, Cook Islands and Nauru. They manage to disarm militants, restore peace, reform and train police services, and advise authorities on institutional and economic reforms. RAMSI's military component officially ends on June 30, 2013, thus remaining primarily a police assistance service.

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